The distinctive receding hairline and full lips suggest that the sitter for this informal portrait may be the painter and art dealer Jules Luquet (1824–at least 1877), a supporter and friend of Courbet’s beginning in the 1860s. This painting’s format—modest in scale and with a strict focus on the head, turned from shadow into light to face the viewer—is one that Courbet seems to have favored for depictions of people he knew well.
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Title:Portrait of a Man
Artist:Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
Date:probably ca. 1862
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:16 1/4 x 13 1/8 in. (41.3 x 33.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Object Number:29.100.201
Inscription: Signed (lower left): G·Courbet·
[Félix Gérard, père, Paris, until d. 1905; his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 28–29, 1905, no. 40, as "Portrait d'homme," for Fr 280, to Vollard]; [Ambroise Vollard, Paris, 1905; sold by September through Mary Cassatt to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1905–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929; cat., 1931, p. 100)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 28 (as "Head of a Man") [2nd ed., 1958, no. 87].
New York. American Federation of Arts. "European Portraiture from the 17th to 19th Century (circulating exhibition)," September 1954–September 1957, no catalogue?
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A143.
Georges Riat. Gustave Courbet peintre. Paris, 1906, p. 387, ill. p. 222, as "Tête d'homme," formerly in the Gérard collection.
H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, p. 100, call it "Portrait of a Man".
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 22.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, p. 121, ill., suggest it resembles a portrait of Courbet's friend Pierre Auguste Fajon (1862; Musée Fabre, Montpellier; F296), and propose a similar or slightly earlier date.
Robert Fernier. "Un ami de Courbet, M. Luquet." Les amis de Gustave Courbet bulletin no. 45 (1971), pp. 39–40, ill., suggests it may well be a portrait of the collector and dealer [Jules] Luquet.
Robert Fernier. La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet. Vol. 1, Peintures, 1819–1865. Lausanne, 1977, p. 244, no. 445, ill. p. 245, calls it "Portrait d'homme, M. Luquet?"; suggests it may represent the dealer Jules Luquet, dates it 1865, and lists a painting in a Swiss private collection (no. 448) as a study for this portrait.
Pierre Courthion. L'opera completa di Courbet. Milan, 1985, p. 99, no. 430, ill. p. 97.
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, p. 167, pl. 129, dates it 1865 and states that the Havemeyers acquired this picture from Vollard in 1905, with Mary Cassatt serving as intermediary.
Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 295, 346 n. 477.
Susan Alyson Stein inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 239, 285, pl. 237, dates it 1865.
Gary Tinterow inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 23–24.
Gretchen Wold inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 317, no. A143, ill. p. 316.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 426, ill.
In size, composition, and handling, Portrait of a Man is similar to Courbet’s 1862 portrait of the writer Pierre-Auguste Fajon (b. 1820) in the Musée Fabre, Montpellier (876.3.23; Fernier 1977, no. 296). A more loosely painted canvas in a Swiss private collection (Fernier 448) has been identified as a study for the present work.
Confirmed portraits of Jules Luquet include an undated painting by Théodule Ribot in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (PD.1-1964), and an 1866 etching by Charles Jacque (impression in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1974-179-257).
Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
ca. 1868–77
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